Victoria and Albert Museum

As the world's leading museum of art and design, the V&A enriches people's lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed world.

Venue Type:

Museum

Opening hours

10.00 to 17.45 daily10.00 to 22.00 Fridays (selected galleries remain open after 18.00 - please see Gallery Closures for further information)Closing commences 10 minutes before time stated

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December

Admission charges

Admission freeThere may be a charge for some special exhibitions and events

Getting there

London Underground (The Tube): The V&A is a five minute walk from South Kensington underground station (on the Piccadilly, Circle and District Line). South Kensington is a five minute tube journey from Victoria, ten minutes from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from King's Cross St Pancras.

The V&A is a ten minute walk from Knightsbridge underground station (on the Piccadilly Line). Knightsbridge is a ten minute tube journey from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from Kings Cross St Pancras.

Bus: Buses C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance. The Open Tour stop outside the Museum as part of their Double Decker Bus site-seeing tour of London.

Additional info

See website for details

The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers.

The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day.

Although the V&A's collections are international in their scope, they contain many particularly important British works - especially British silver, ceramics, textiles and furniture.

Part of the RIBA Trust's British Architecture Library, a Designated Collection of national importance, is on display at this museum.

The collection provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of architecture. It is fundamental to the study of architecture in Britain and is nationally and internationally significant.

Key artists and exhibits

The British Galleries 1500-1900 tell the story of British design from the Tudor age to the Victorian era. Fifteen completely refurbished galleries are filled with exhibits reflecting all of the top British designers of the times. The galleries are enhanced by computer interactives, objects to handle, video screens and audio programmes. Highlights include the gigantic Great Bed of Ware (mentioned in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and the wedding suit worn by James II. Inspirational, beautiful and unmatched in scope, the British Galleries offer an entirely new visitor experience in a stunning and innovative setting.

Designated Collection

Exhibition details are listed below, you may need to scroll down to see them all.

Exhibition (temporary)

DISPLAY: Exhibition Road Building

27 November 2014 — 15 October 2016 *on now

The V&A Exhibition Road Building Project will create a beautifully designed new entrance, gallery, courtyard, shop and café. The display includes models, visualisations, sketches and mock ups that trace the process of this innovative scheme from the early history of the 'boiler house yard' site, through the design competition and the development of AL_A’s winning scheme, to the build itself. Displays complement our permanent collections; there are many free temporary displays around the V&A. They range in size from a single case to a room.

Website

Petitot was responsible for some of the most captivating and eccentric neoclassical ornamental designs ever produced.

Petitot received a classical training in Lyons, Paris and Rome and won the prestigious post of court architect to the Duke of Parma in 1753. He executed a diverse range of commissions for the ducal palace and other important interiors, bringing a distinctly French aesthetic to thearchitecture and gardens of Parma. In two famous suites of ornament prints published in the 1770s Petitot gave full reign to his imagination and ensured his legacy as one of the most original exponents of Neoclassicism. These prints and a number of Petitot’s drawings and works by other influential architects and designers form the focus of this display.

Displays complement our permanent collections; there are many free temporary displays around the V&A. They range in size from a single case to a room.

Website

EXHIBITION: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

14 March — 2 August 2015 *on now

EXHIBITION: Celebrating the extraordinary creative talent of one of the most innovative designers of recent times, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will be the first and largest retrospective of McQueen's work to be presented in Europe.

The V&A is delighted to announce that it will present Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in London in spring 2015. The first and largest retrospective of the late designer’s work to be presented in Europe, the exhibition will showcase McQueen’s visionary body of work. Spanning his 1992 MA graduate collection to his unfinished A/W 2010 collection, McQueen’s designs will be presented with the dramatic staging and sense of spectacle synonymous with his runway shows.

The original version of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2011 was organised by the Costume Institute and became one of the Museum's top 10 most visited exhibitions.

Website

What is Luxury?

25 April — 27 September 2015 *on now

What is Luxury? will interrogate ideas of luxury today. It will address how luxury is made and understood in a physical, conceptual and cultural capacity.

Extraordinary works of craftsmanship will be on display including a couture gown by fashion designer Iris van Herpen and fine examples of haute horlogerie by British watchmaker George Daniels, alongside more unexpected projects which explore the cultural value of materials such as gold, diamonds and plastic.

The future of luxury will be explored, asking questions about the role that time, space, privacy, well-being, social inclusivity and access to resources and skill may play in determining our choices and aspirations.

Suitable for

Family friendly

Website

Shoes: Pleasure and Pain

13 June 2015 — 31 January 2016 *on now

This exhibition looks at the extremes of footwear from around the globe, presenting around 200 pairs of shoes ranging from a sandal decorated in pure gold leaf originating from ancient Egypt to the most elaborate designs by contemporary makers.

It considers the cultural significance and transformative capacity of shoes and examines the latest developments in footwear technology creating the possibility of ever higher heels and dramatic shapes.

Examples from famous shoe wearers and collectors are shown alongside a dazzling range of historic shoes, many of which have not been displayed before.

Website

Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1854-1860

This display features some of the earliest and most striking views of the landscape and architecture of India and Burma, by a pioneering British photographer.

While on leave from his post as an officer in the Madras Infantry, Linnaeus Tripe mastered photography and was commissioned as 'Photographer to the Madras Government'.

His images combine the eye of a surveyor with the sensibilities of an artist. The display is a collaboration between the V&A, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Website

Isa Genzken: Basic Research Paintings

30 June — 6 September 2015 *on now

Isa Genzken is one of the most important and influential artists of the last forty years. Since the early 1970s, Genzken has developed an extraordinary practice as evidenced through museum shows such as her recent retrospective at MoMA, New York in 2014. Increasingly ambitious displays of the artist’s work have tended toward a focus on large-scale sculptures, installations and impressive wall mounted panel works. Lesser known are her paintings.

Having experimented with a variety of different materials and art forms, to include assemblage and photography, film and video, Genzken also produced two prominent series of paintings spanning the late-80s and early 90s. This included her MLR (More Light Research) works from the early 90s, and the Basic Research paintings produced between 1989 and 1991. The latter have rarely been shown in isolation, or in the context of a freestanding painting show.

The Basic Research paintings are compelling in that they invite scrutiny from the micro to the macro, revealing themselves as close-up impressions of urban architecture, or aerial views of alien landscapes. By dint of their being a married couple at the time, these works are sometimes compared to the abstract paintings of Gerhard Richter. By contrast, Genzken’s approach to abstract painting is emboldened through a more straightforward and direct method, using a limited palette that rarely strays from a range of naturalistic hues such as dark green or brown.

Suitable for

Admission

Entry with Day Membership (£1)

Website

The Fabric of India

3 October 2015 — 10 January 2016

The highlight of the V&A’s India Season, this is the first major exhibition to explore the dynamic and multifaceted world of handmade textiles from India. It includes a spectacular 18th-century tent belonging to Tipu Sultan, a stunning range of historic costume, highly prized textiles made for international trade, and cutting-edge fashion by celebrated Indian designers.

Showcasing the best of the V&A’s world-renowned collection together with masterpieces from international partners, the exhibition will feature over 200 objects ranging from the 3rd to the 21st century. Objects on display for the first time will be shown alongside renowned masterworks and the very latest in Indian contemporary design. The astonishing skills and variety evident in this incomparably rich tradition will surprise and inform even those with prior knowledge of the subject, and is sure to delight visitors.

Suitable for

Website

Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection

21 November 2015 — 28 March 2016

Spectacular objects, drawn from a single private collection, explore the broad themes of tradition and modernity in Indian jewellery.

Highlights include Mughal jades, a rare jewelled gold finial from the throne of Tipu Sultan, and pieces that reveal the dramatic changes that took place in Indian jewellery design during the early 20th century.

The exhibition examines the influence that India had on avant-garde European jewellery made by Cartier and other leading houses and will conclude with contemporary pieces made by JAR and Bhagat, which are inspired by a creative fusion of Mughal motifs and Art Deco ‘Indian’ designs.

Suitable for

Website

Julia Margaret Cameron

28 November 2015 — 14 February 2016

Supported by The Bernard Lee Schwartz FoundationThis donation was made possible by the American Friends of the V&A

To mark the bicentenary of the birth of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), one of the most important and experimental photographers of the 19th century, the V&A presents 100 of her photographs from the Museum’s collection.

The exhibition will examine her relationship with the V&A’s founding director, Sir Henry Cole, who presented the first museum exhibition of her work (and the only one during her lifetime).

It includes a number of works given and sold directly by Cameron to the Museum, letters written by Cameron to Cole that reveal her questions on technical and practical matters, and Sir Henry Cole’s diary which describes sitting for a portrait by Cameron.

The works on display show Cameron’s technical experiments in striving to make highly artistic photographs which she expected would ‘electrify you with delight and startle the world’.

Suitable for

Website

Events details are listed below. You may need to scroll down or click on headers to see them all. For events that don't have a specific date see the 'Resources' tab above.

Workshop, club or activity

Scandinavian Art and Design: 1850 - 1950

23 September 2014 — 18 November 2015 *on now

Discover some of the highlights of a period during which painters, sculptors and designers in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland achieved a leading place in European art.

The late 19th-century saw an upsurge in artistic creativity across the Nordic region. With painters like Edvard Munch and Vilhelm Hammershøi winning international prominence and notoriety, Scandinavian artists and designers were also in the vanguard of a movement to revive the traditional crafts and raise their status as objects of aesthetic value.

In the process they achieved international acclaim: from the silverware of Georg Jensen in Denmark to the furniture of Alvar Aalto in Finland, Scandinavia won a place at the vanguard of modern design, and moved from the periphery to the centre of the European art world.

Website

Create! Pattern Cutting (13-15 Years) Aug 2015

3 August 2015

Juliana has worked with McQueen as a freelance pattern cutter, and regularly gives fashion patterning masterclasses for the British Fashion Council.

Using the V&A Fashion gallery as inspiration, you will create a design, make a pattern for it, size it correctly for a garment, trace off sections and cut part of it out in fabric, then pin and sew your pieces together.No previous experience needed.There is only a 30 minute lunch break, so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch.

Suitable for

Website

Create! Pattern Cutting (16-19 Years) Aug 2015

3 August 2015

Juliana has worked with McQueen as a freelance pattern cutter, and regularly gives fashion patterning masterclasses for the British Fashion Council. Using the V&A Fashion gallery as inspiration, you will create a design, make a pattern for it, size it correctly for a garment, trace off sections and cut part of it out in fabric, then pin and sew your pieces together.No previous experience needed.

There is only a 30 minute lunch break, so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch.

Suitable for

Website

Create! Shoe Design (13-15 Years)

6 August 2015

Find out the principles of shoe design, the various stages of how they are made, and what you need consider when designing different styles of shoes. At the end of the day you will have made a 3-D model of your shoe design. Led by shoe designer Jessica Good

No previous experience needed.

There is only a 30 minute lunch break, so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch

(13-15 years)

11.00-16.00

£15, no concessions

Suitable for

11-13

14-15

Website

Create! Shoe Design (16-19 Years)

7 August 2015

Find out the principles of shoe design, the various stages of how they are made, and what you need consider when designing different styles of shoes. At the end of the day you will have made a 3-D model of your shoe design. Led by shoe designer Jessica Good

No previous experience needed

There is only a 30 minute lunch break, so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch.

Suitable for

Website

Touch Tour: Renaissance Wellheads and Fountains

12 August 2015

Italian villas were often surrounded by formal gardens. For both practical and aesthetic reasons, owners chose their site with care. The need for flowing water to power the fountains - led them to prefer hillside locations with natural springs. Penny will explore the fountains in the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery focusing on their wellheads and decoration in this unique touch tour.

Suitable for

Website

Touch Tour: All of This Belongs to You

12 August 2015

At a time when Britain will be engaged in the democratic process of an election, the V&A will examine the role of public institutions in contemporary life and what it means to be responsible for a national collection. A series of specially commissioned interventions around the Museum will raise questions about the opportunities, obligations and limits to participation in this national institution. The exhibition will act as a laboratory for public life and explore the role of design and architecture in defining civic identity, technology, security, citizenship, democracy, the public realm and urban experience.

Suitable for

Website

Create! Architectural Model Making (13-15 years)

13 — 14 August 2015

This two day course is a unique opportunity to work with architects and specialist model makers from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. On day one you will develop practical drawing, modelling and material manipulation skills, plus designing to a brief. Day two will be design and making a model of a building to fit into a surrounding environment. At the end of the course, all participants will present their designs to the group and their models will be displayed on the map to create a new city.Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) is an international architectural practice based in London, Over three decades, RSHP has attracted critical acclaim and awards with built projects across Europe, North America, Australasia and Asia.

No previous s experience needed.

There is only a 30 minute lunch break, so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch.

Website

The Shoes Talk: Clarks in Jamaica

14 August 2015

Join Al ‘Fingers’ Newman, Professor Paul Gilroy, Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and Lance Clark, as they discuss this phenomenon that is also celebrated in the music of reggae artists such as Dillinger and Little John. Event concludes with a DJ set of Clarks inspired tunes with Al Fingers.

Suitable for

Website

Create! Vintage Make-up (13-15 Years)

17 August 2015

This workshop will be looking at the disco diva make-up elements of colour and glitter plus the contrasting the hard edged club looks of the Kings Road Chelsea Punk make-up. The session will cover, foundation, tanning with powder, applying glitter, and extreme eyeliner.

Suitable for

Website

Create! Vintage Make-up (16-19 Years)

18 August 2015

This workshop will be looking at the disco diva make-up elements of colour and glitter plus the contrasting the hard edged club looks of the Kings Road Chelsea Punk make-up. The session will cover, foundation, tanning with powder, applying glitter, and extreme eyeliner.

Suitable for

Website

CreateTour: Photography

Join the CreateVoice members at their monthly tour to discover a new gallery and hear a fresh perspective on the Museum’s collection. This month’s theme is Photography.

(16-24 years)

20.00-20.30

Free, drop in

Suitable for

18+

16-17

Workshop, club or activity

Create! Jewellery (16-19 Years)

21 August 2015

Explore a range of techniques and processes to create jewellery from your own designs. Work with a professional jeweller who will give you an insight into the contemporary jewellery world. Be inspired by examples in the V&A’s permanent jewellery collection. With Petra Bishai

Suitable for

Website

Create! Jewellery (13-15 Years)

21 August 2015

Explore a range of techniques and processes to create jewellery from your own designs. Work with a professional jeweller who will give you an insight into the contemporary jewellery world. Be inspired by examples in the V&A’s permanent jewellery collection. With Petra Bishai.

Suitable for

Website

Bespoke Bags

26 August 2015

Working with designer-maker Elizabeth Oniri, you will create a bag in a tote or envelope style, from a selection of fabrics, and decorate it using appliqué, embroidery, beadwork and other decorative techniques. Learn hand and machine sewing skills, and the basic principles behind bag design.

No previous sewing experience needed.

There is only a 30 minute lunch break, so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch.

Suitable for

Website

BSL Talk: Ways to be Public

28 August 2015

Public architecture comprises the schools, libraries, hospitals, squares and other public places where we come together. These places have traditionally given meaning to, and made a setting for, our public lives. Today we live in an era defined by cultural, economic and social instability and incoherence, and public architecture has been forced to adapt. Ways to Be Public presents an expanded role for architecture, showing how practitioners are using new tools, tactics and ideas to forge publics in a variety of ways.

Website

Keko Hainswheeler

4 September 2015

Keko's and variety of influences that have made him one of the most sought after collaborators/designers working in the fashion and music industry. Keko works with artists, stylists and photographers including Lady Gaga, Skunk Anansie lead singer Skin, Nicola Formichetti, Mario Testino and creatively consults for international brands such as Diesel.

Website

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: A London Celebration

5 September 2015

Celebrating the acquisition of a formal tail-suit worn by Fred Astaire and the spectacular dress worn by Ginger Rogers in the 1944 film Lady in the Dark, and commemorating the 80th anniversary of the release of the film Top Hat, this study day will bring together international scholars, experts, enthusiasts, and special guests to explore aspects of the team’s artistry and celebrate their lasting legacy.

Website

Electro-Woodcraft

10 — 12 September 2015

Bringing together hand-carved wood, 3D printing and electrical lighting components, each participant will design and make their own personal Torch that represents an alternative to industrialised manufacturing.

Led by Dean Brown

Thursday 10 – Saturday 12 September, 10.30 – 17.00Please note Thursday and Friday will be held at the V&A and the third day of the workshop will be based off-site at Machinesroom Makerspace.

Website

Brideshead Reunited

11 September 2015

Voted one of the greatest TV dramas of all time, Brideshead Revisited is filmed on location in Castle Howard, Hertford College Oxford, and in glamorous interiors in London, Venice and the QE2. The series vividly conjured up the privileged lifestyles of wealthy aristocrats in the 1920s and 1930s. The cast and writer talk about the making of the series and its influence.

Website

Touch Tour: What is Luxury?

15 September 2015

The third in the series of Crafts Council partnership exhibitions, What is Luxury? will present exceptional examples of contemporary design and craftsmanship alongside conceptual projects which interrogate fundamental ideas of luxury, its production and future. The exhibition will address how luxury is made and understood in a physical, conceptual and cultural capacity – from finely-crafted exhibits to specially commissioned installations. Challenge, question and explore the general and personal ideas of luxury. What is your idea of luxury?

Website

Bruno Frisoni: Haute Couture Shoes

15 September 2015

Frisoni has taken the luxury brand of Roger Vivier, renowned for creating the stiletto heel, and turned them into haute fantasy designs, shoescovered with pleating, flowers, ruffles and zippers. He discusses shoes and his career with Gianluca Longo.

Website

CreateInsights: Design and Invention with Dominic Wilcox

18 September 2015

Dominic works between the worlds of art, design, craft and technology to create innovative and thought provoking objects. Recent projects include the design of a pair of shoes with inbuilt GPS to guide the wearer home, a Binaudios device to listen to the sounds of the city, a race against a 3D printer, and a stained glass driverless car of the future. Dominic's work is featured in the current What Is Luxury? exhibition at the Museum.

Website

Iain Sinclair and Will Self: Walking London

18 September 2015

Their books, like Sinclair’s Lud Heat, and Downriver, and Self’s Dorian and Umbrella explore the darker, haunting aspects of the city. They are also both inveterate walkers and have traversed much of London on foot. They discuss their enduring fascination with the capital and what it means for their work.

18.30 – 19.30

£10, £7 concessions

In collaboration with London: Medieval to Modern, new V&A year course.

Website

BSL Talk: The V&A's Damascus Room

25 September 2015

These rooms were the focus of hospitality, but the objects displayed there also announced a family's wealth and status. When cities began to modernise in the late 19th century, many of these decorative interiors were removed for sale. The V&A was the earliest western collection to acquire one. This display will present some of the paneling and a selection of the objects that once dressed this room.

18.30-19.30

Free, booking essential

Website

Celebrating Robin Day

25 September 2015

Renowned for his injection-moulded Polypropylene Chair and for his pared-down Festival of Britain aesthetic, Day’s seven-decade career encompassed graphics, exhibition, and interior design as well as furniture.

This event celebrates the centenary of Robin Day’s birth and considers his work for Hille and for major national landmarks such as the Royal Festival Hall. Speakers include curators, historians and the designer’s daughter, Paula Day.

Website

Fashion and Fiction: Linda Grant

29 September 2015

Her novels The Cast Iron Shore, and The Clothes On Their Backs make clothes key to understanding character, identity and history. Linda also worked as a fashion journalist for Vogue, and has strong views about our label culture and the ‘chicklitization’ of fashion in modern fiction. Linda argues the case for fashion in fiction, by discussing her own novels and the great fashion-and-fiction writers such as Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith.

Make Your Own Thaumatrope

Wallpaper Design

Getting there

London Underground (The Tube): The V&A is a five minute walk from South Kensington underground station (on the Piccadilly, Circle and District Line). South Kensington is a five minute tube journey from Victoria, ten minutes from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from King's Cross St Pancras.

The V&A is a ten minute walk from Knightsbridge underground station (on the Piccadilly Line). Knightsbridge is a ten minute tube journey from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from Kings Cross St Pancras.

Bus: Buses C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance. The Open Tour stop outside the Museum as part of their Double Decker Bus site-seeing tour of London.

Website

E-mail

Telephone

020 7942 2000

All information is drawn from or provided by the venues themselves and every effort is made to ensure it is correct. Please remember to double check opening hours with the venue concerned before making a special visit.